Yemuka and Sankum brought their troops as close to my camp as they could, believing that they could not be seen in the darkness. One of them gave a signal to set their arrow notches in the string of their bows. A second signal allowed the archers to fire a cloud of arrows into the camp and yurts.

Nothing happened.

Another set of signals sent a second cloud of arrows into the camp.

Still nothing!

Finally, being quite astonished and still not getting any wiser, Yemuka’s and Sankum’s troops cautiously entered the camp. They soon realized that the camp was empty. Someone gave the order to determine if any horse tracks could be seen. They hoped to find my escape route and attack me from behind.

Several trips around the campsite were required before our horse’s hoofprints could be found in the darkness.

Several of Yemuka’s and Sankum’s troops took off in the direction of the hoofprints while others were still circling the camp, unaware that our hoofprints had been found. In this manner the enemy troops were disorganized and could not form a strong unit.

Eventually some of the enemy came together but it was an insufficient number. They thought that they would come up behind my troops as we were fleeing. Little did they realize that we were organized and ready for the battle.